White House Still Calling Housing Recovery ‘Fragile’

The latest Housing Scorecard from the Obama Administration shows progress on several fronts—notably home prices—but continues the familiar cautionary language in describing the recovery.

The scorecard evaluates housing data from December 2013. The majority of such scorecards provided by the administration this year utilize the word “fragile” to describe the market, and this month’s report follows the trend.

“December’s Housing Scorecard shows that we are continuing to make progress helping struggling home owners get back on their feet,” says Edward J. Szymanoski, associate deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs. “Since the beginning of 2012, the number of home owners underwater has declined by 5.7 million and homeowners’ equity has risen by 55 percent to $9.7 trillion. There remains more work to do to address the 6.4 million home owners who remain underwater; nevertheless, these are encouraging signs that the housing market recovery is providing millions of American home owners with more economic security.”

Each month, the report highlights how the Making Home Affordable program is performing. As of December 2013, nearly 1.3 million home owners have received permanent loan modifications through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The report also showed that home values are on par with prices in early 2005, according to data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.